Christmas comes early for animated film produced in Derry

An animated adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s only novel written in Irish under the pseudonym of Myles Na gCopaleen, An Béal Bocht, will have its TV premiere on TG4 on Christmas Day at 5.25pm.

The animated film was produced by Derry producers Pearse Moore and Tom Collins and animated by John McCloskey through their Nerve Centre based production company, Raw Nerve Productions.

Already the film has picked up numerous awards including Best Animated Debut and the Don Quixote For Animation at the Galway Film Fleadh, where An Béal Bocht first screened in the summer, and most recently the Best Animated Film at the 30th Foyle Film Festival last month.

As Northern Ireland's only Oscar-qualifying film festival, the award at Foyle makes the adaptation automatically eligible for consideration in the Short Animation category at the 2019 Academy Awards.

The film is a biting satire of the life story of a young Gael reflecting on his life from Sligo Gaol and stars Seán Misteál, Donncha Crowley, Tommy Tiernan and Bob Quinn.

An Béal Bocht (The Poor Mouth) is the 1941 novel in Irish by Strabane-born Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien), published under the pseudonym 'Myles na gCopaleen'. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century.

It is the first time that the book has been brought to screen and is also the animated debut for critically acclaimed feature film director, Tom Collins.

An Béal Bocht is a co-production between award-winning animation production company Raw Nerve Productions and De facto Films. Principal animator at Raw Nerve is BAFTA-nominated animator, John McCloskey, who took the role of animation director working closely with writer/director Collins.

The film was produced by Pearse Moore and Tom Collins and animated at Derry’s Nerve Centre.

TG4 have revealed that the TV premiere will be one of the highlights of its Christmas season.

The project was developed with assistance from TG4 and the Irish Language Broadcast fund and production support from TG4, Irish Language Broadcast fund and Broadcast Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.